Archive for the Graffiti Category

1. At the beach at the end of 17th Ave, on the seawall. A rather strange graffiti stating only “Black Cock” with a Celtic Cross (a symbol appropriated by the Klan and Nazis) as the letter “o.” Tagged over in spraypaint, “Whitey’s Got Insecurities.”

2. “Jews Now Rule the World,” “Israil [sic] rules the U.S.” and other asinine Anti-Semitic scrawls on the town-bound bus stop benches at Water/Poplar and Soquel/7th, at the out-bound bus stop at Soquel/Hagemann, and on the bench outside Safeway on Morrisey.

At many locations, the graffiti has been scratched off, blacked out, or crossed out. The graffiti at Water/Poplar was crossed out and replaced with, “Nazis Fuck Off” and an X’ed-out swastika.

I was walking in downtown Santa Cruz, and spotted an “SS” lightning bolt tag on the wall of Toadal Fitness on Lincoln Street, next to the pay phone facing Cedar Street. While the purpose of this website is to consider local fascism seriously, this graffiti was pretty pathetic: it was done in yellow chalk.

As you can see, someone used black to X out the “SS,” and written “Kill Nazis” underneath. The wall has since been painted. It is a good practice to cross out racist and nazi graffiti, even if it is written in chalk. Crossing out racist graffiti allows passerby to see that there is that element out there, and also opposition to it, whereas merely covering it up makes the problem invisible.

Other places I’ve seen crossed out swastikas and SS lightning bolts are the bathroom of the Felton Safeway, and on metal railings near the Boardwalk. For those unfamiliar, “SS” refers to Nazi Germany’s Schutzstaffel, the paramilitary force that ran the concentration camps (among other functions), and is a common Neo-Nazi symbol.